Saturday, March 2, 2013

Female Northern Cardinal

Last fall, when I wrote passages for a higher education test, I was told the passages must be from the real world, no contrived situations and they must use authentic graphics. Last month, when I was in Texas for a line writing hoedown, we got on the subject of climate change. I was told that they had quite a few passages on the subject. About 50% dealt with man-made emissions and 50% dealt with climate change from natural causes. I was incredulous. What!

Male Northern Cardinal

There was certainly a risk to speaking out, a risk of losing a client, but I was willing to take that risk. I was not about to sit back in agreement with something I totally did not agree with, so I explained about the mountain of evidence, the scientific consensus, and the Frontline episode that hammered the climate change counter movement. What could "natural cause" writers possibly write about that was nonfiction? Later I was told it wasn't a 50/50 split, but I was unclear about the ratio. When I returned home, I followed up by sending links to support my statements. It's doubtful that my voice and my email changed anything, but I'm content knowing that I spoke up and justified my position.